Restaurants, apartments planned in downtown Monterey

Two buildings with ground-floor restaurants and upstairs apartments would go on the downtown Monterey site left vacant by a 2007 fire that destroyed a 100-year-old building.

The Saucito Land Co., the family real estate company that owns the site at 459 Alvarado St., submitted plans for the new development Friday to the city of Monterey.

"We met with members of the planning staff ... and they seemed very enthusiastic," company property manager Jerry Anderson said Tuesday.

One 13,360-square-foot building would have two stories and front on Alvarado Street, with an 80-seat restaurant and two retail spaces on the ground floor and eight apartments on the second floor. The design reflects several aspects of "traditional Monterey building style," Anderson said.

The other 21,325-square-foot building, which would front on Tyler Street between the Estrada Adobe and a parking lot, would also have an 80-seat restaurant on the ground floor, one retail space and 13 apartments on the second and third floors. All the apartments would be market-rate rentals.

There would be 19 parking spaces located between the buildings — nine covered and 10 uncovered — a number in keeping with proposed rules for downtown Monterey development, Anderson said.

The site has been fenced and empty since the February 2007 fire raced through the T.A. Work Building. Rebuilding is viewed as key to bringing more vitality downtown.

"It's been too long," said Julie Work Beck, a principal of the Saucito Land Co. and granddaughter of pioneer financier-landowner Thomas Albert Work. "We're ready to go. We think we have a great plan, and we're looking forward to getting it (done)."

If all goes smoothly with the project permit, construction could start early next year, Anderson said. Building the project would take more than a year, he said.

The two-building plan wouldn't require any variances, but it would depend, in part, on 1.6 acre-feet of water the city designated in 2008 for a previous proposal's affordable housing.

City Manager Fred Meurer said he would recommend the city keeps its water commitment to the new project "if, in fact, they can demonstrate it (can be financed) quickly."

"Time has been more than expended getting this project up and running," Meurer said. "On the surface it looks like a great start, and we hope to move it through the process very, very rapidly."

In February, Saucito Land announced it was breaking off lengthy negotiations with Foothill Partners, which has done other Monterey projects and proposed a 25,000-square-foot, four-story building on the site with a ground-floor marketplace, underground parking and three floors of apartments.

At the time, Saucito Land said it would deliver its own plan for the site within three months. And it delivered in about 2½ months.

"It's never easy changing direction, but we have been working very hard," Anderson said.

Beck said the recession and the lengthy negotiations over the previous proposal were the main factors for the time it's taken to rebuild on the fire-cleared site.

"It's an exciting day," she said. "We can make a really nice project for ourselves and for our community."

Anderson said he believes there would be strong markets for the studio and one-bedroom apartments and for the restaurants. He said the search for potential tenants would start soon.

"We want the best darn restaurant uses you can find," Anderson said. He declined to estimate the project's potential cost.

Rick Johnson, executive director of the Old Monterey Business Association, said he is excited to see the potential investment in downtown.

"It's been a long time sitting empty," Johnson said. "I think it's even better the family itself is doing this."